Digital cameras 101

[TracyRee]

Hi there. I received a Sony Cybershot for Christmas and have not been happy with it.  My old camera is an Olympus Camedia and I looove it.

I use them for indoors mainly and with my Camedia I just leave the flash off during the day and shoot.  The pictures always turned out beautiful.

The Cybershot is a different story.  If I use the flash it's too bright, if I don't it's too dark.  Almost every picture I've taken with it has been blury.  

One thing that helped was I set it to "incandesent", but it's still not great.

I would have thought a 5 megapixel camera would give better pictures than my 2.1 Camedia, but so far I don't like it at all.

What can I do?

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi TraceyRee,

Welcome to the Q&Board!

Unfortunately, there is no relationship between the number of megapixels your camera has and the effectiveness of an in-camera flash on a digital camera. Why the flash gives better results than another remains a mystery to me.

Most built-in flashes on a digital camera do a so-so job. You must be careful to stay within the flash range recommende by the manufacturer (check the manual). You didn't mention the model of your camera, but check if it has flash compenstation so you can adjust the output of the light.

I think you will find this additional information helpful about using an built-in flash:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/digital-camera-features/digital-camera-flash.htm

Let us know if any of the suggestions help.

Incidently, many people who do a lot of inside photography end up getting an external flash.